RossDagley

Its a fair point (think "a time to kill" - when you ook at me you dont see a man, you see a BLACK man"). Equally, its off my original topic a little, but I think I see where you're coming from...

No, but there is a perfectly good womens forum. So when should I expect to see a 'mens' forum? Where we can discuss such issues as whether to shave ones testicles or not, and prostrate cancer?

Although technically he was charged with rape, I totally agree with you - I was just using that to counter my 'boxers aren't angels' arguement

Obviously this is discussing creed over race - anti-black or anti-asian is a seperate issue. Just to stop this going off topic But I'm not. If a Jehovah's Witness knocks at my door and I insult his 'belief' I'll liable to be prosecuted under racism laws, and this is the fundamental point of my discussion. I call him a "stupid Jehovah" and I'm the one in the mire. (So instead, i say "Sorry, I'm off to give blood" - but thats dragging it off-topic ) I'm trying assertain to what level freedom of speech (of which theres very little in the UK) is affected by racism laws. Frankly, if you're of the 'jedi' belief (http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/features/living/faith/faith_jedi_feature.shtml) then your a fucking idiot, make no mistake. But would I dare to voice that same opinion against a Christian? Whats the difference? Simple. The number of believers. Its more 'acceptable' to be Christian than Jedi. Its not often I'll quote Hitler, but from "Mein Kampf" -

Personally, I wouldn't describe calling Frazier (during the early 70's) "Uncle Tom", or in his public workouts portraying Frazier as a gorilla desperately seeking lost bananas, or dressing in a rubber gorilla suit as particually 'smart'. Ali tried to play the whole 'race' card with Frazier describing him as a 'poor mans negro' etc. Hes no angel... To quote Floyd Patterson - "Cassius Clay is disgracing himself and the Negro race. No decent person can look up to a champion whose credo is "hate whites." Equally, raping teenagers isn't all that smart, granted. Right Mike?

For a first post on SC, I thought I'd pick a question I've thought about for a while to get others standpoints on it. Religion, regardless of which religion, is based on very little 'fact' and a great deal of 'fiction' (or 'belief' if you prefer). With this in mind, what is the moral background to Antisemitism and other 'religious' laws? For example - if someone truely, genuinely believes Roswell/Area 51 and all that 'alien' stuff (just using this as an example) surely I have a right to disagree with that belief and to express that opinion towards the 'believer' - IE, "you're a fool if you believe that". However, if I said "You're a Jew, therefore your a fool" I would be saying this because I believed the Jewish person's beliefs were flawed/foolish. However, I'd be being antisemitic. What with the forthcoming British laws to protect Muslims in the same way as the Jewish were protected after WW2, I'd be interested to hear others viewpoints on the matter. IE, should you be 'allowed' to disagree with a belief? After all - its just that - a bunch of people believing the same thing. Whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Jedi. For the record, I have no religious bias (that I'm aware of). Minor edits for spelling.

So tash, the only question remains is when am I gonna fly with you at Bedford? Presuming you do *do* flat too

Actually i think it works the other way round. If I remember right, the 'threshold' is 5.5 hours. If you do 6 hours or more in a 'block' (iirc it was 5 days) its cheaper to fly to SVO and stay in a hotel for the 5 days, than goto a UK tunnel... But to be fair, I've flown both. Whilst I love the SVO tunnel (and especially the level of skill of the coaches), Bodyflight Bedford has just a tad more room I've yet to test the Bedford tunnel staff's 'flexability' - I cant backfly for more than about 2 minutes because of a shoulder problem for example. At SVO, Rusty cleared it and was coaching me straight from walking to a sit - I'm yet to broach that subject with Paul @ Bedford Oh, and I wish you could just turn up and do 10 minutes at the drop of a hat - you'd need to book about 3-4 days in advance to get a 'specific' slot at Bedford at the moment. Getting an hour is best booked a week in advance. I remember being able to get 'squeezed' in for a 30 minute coached session at SVO with just a few hours notice - hopefully once Jo Public has got over the 'new thrill' factor, the regulars will be able to get some sime at shorter notice...

I was just trying to show that the SkyVenture re-circulating tunnels here in the US were just as good as the re-circulating one in the UK Sorry - to clarify. Cheap as in inexpensive! your tunnels are USD$600 per hour, give or take a little, whilst ours are USD$1,100 give or take. NOW you see where I'm coming from?

Er HELLO!! PICS??

The US guys (and gals) have (had) much better access to tunnels than us UK guys, but thats changing now we've two tunnels here. The UK tunnels make the US tunnels look cheap, so anyone with serious time in the UK tunnels either has a bad BAD habit (like me ) or is getting paid/subsidised training or coaching. In the UK I'd guess you could count on (no more than) two hands at the moment those people with more than say 10 hours of time, but I suspect thats likely to change as time goes on obviously. Ultimately it depends oon what your objectives are - I found myself wanting to use the tunnel as a 'training tool' when I started. Now I've just over 6 hours in the tunnel, and enjoy it seperately to jumping. Its the same, but different

Presumably this: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1973796#1973796[/url]

i do this sometimes, hangover from the days of hanging around paragliding pilots too much Paragliding? dont you know that shits dangerous dude...

Edited to remove my post - Matt cleared it up just above :)

Yah bingo. I'm jumping a 190 atm, which according to that chart, I'm not allowed to jump... On the other hand, it wouldn't stop me hooking in a 230 if someone loaned me one... Are these 'guidelines' or is there a plan to enforce these somehow? and how would this affect 'tourists' visiting the US?

I think this is the answer I go by - chute when packing (or parachute when talking to whuffo's), canopy when flying or talking about flying.

My suggestion would be to do your session in the tunnel with booties, then make the last 2 minutes you do without (just roll them up your shins inside the suit) so you're flying without them. This will get you used to your suit whilst also preparing you a little for a bootie (or two!) coming off (which can happen if you go unstable). Most of all, have fun

All I want is my helmet lined with tin foil to “Block out the space mind control lasers”...

Hey. I went as funky as I could tie-dye grippers with red piping (can't see the piping on the pic, but its n the pack of the gripper) http://www.dagley.co.uk/skydive/rwsuit1.jpg

7 Yellow cells, black and red cell at one end. Matched the rest of my gear and is nice and visible should I have to chop it and whilst under canopy. I also like the white top and bottom skin designs with coloured ribs (purple for instance) - theres a few swoopers at my DZ with canopies like this, and they look transparent when coming in to swoop - looks really nice IMO.

Can they not retrofit it? My rigs due to go back to Aerodyne this winter, and rumour has it its now available as an option on their rigs, so I'll be asking for it (I'm having harness work anyway).

Yeah - and I've been falling asleep at the wheel whilst driving for over 10 years too, thinking I'd always get away with it. Earlier this year it bit and I almost wrote my car off. Could have been a whole lot worse. When you kill someone, I'm sure the line "I've been doing it without a problem for 14 years until now" will really help the victims family...

no, I know it will open. however, I wonder about landing it. so now I am in the market for a used SMART reserve. Thats a whole other topic - I worried so much about jumping my brand new rig, with a brand new main and reserve that I didn't - I got Pine at deland to jump it first But back to the OP - no, I dont worry about the reserve 'not opening' - I've watched my reserve be repacked, and take great interest in my gear and everything my rigger does (not just to my gear, but to other peoples - I love spending rainy days watching my rigger work) - I have total confidence in his ability, and total confidence in my equipment. If it DOESN'T open - like someone said above - it'll probably only bother me for 15 seconds or so...

Booked (two tickets) - and took out a lifetime membership! You should award Bev for her arm-bending ability Paul

Agreed with the opening, but interested to hear you say it doesn't burn up a lot of altitude. What are you implying *is* a lot? I get about an 800ft snivel (IE, throw at 3k, in the saddle at 2-2.1k). The nicest openings I've ever had were hop and pops from 3k - sub terminal if it wasn't for the rustling above my head, I'd not know I was slowing down its that soft